BESE to review student data storage and sharing

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Louisiana's top education board is reviewing how the state education department stores and shares public school student data.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed Wednesday to create a task force looking at the issue after concerns were raised about a state data-sharing agreement with an outside organization.

Superintendent of Education John White says he has terminated the agreement with inBloom, a nonprofit that is seeking to create a national database of student information. White says he also has asked for all Louisiana data to be removed from the database.

White assured BESE members that personal student data – everything from addresses and test scores to information about learning disabilities – is protected. But he agreed to the task force review, saying he wanted to build trust.